You and I
by ophalynjt
Summary: Sequel to Facebook Friends. Rory and Logan a few months after FF ends trying to start their future together when unforeseen events occur and they must find a way through it together or fall apart
1. Prologue

**AN: I can't believe I finally wrote this. It's crazy. I started writing the sequel months ago when Facebook Friends ended but I could just never get through the first chapter. Something about it seemed off to me and then I suffered from complete writer's block and I just couldn't finish it. Then a few weeks ago this one just came to me in bits and pieces as scenes in a dream. I didn't have time to write it but then the other day I couldn't get it out of my head and this just flowed out. It definitely wasn't how I intended to start this story, but I think it works and I'm pretty sure you'll hate me for it. I went back and re-read Facebook Friends and man I'm pretty sure this is not how you all thought this one would go but I hope you like it…look at the end for another author's note. Thanks everyone for being so patient.**

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><p>You and I<p>

Prologue

As I stepped off the elevator and headed down the familiar path, I slowed my steps. I hadn't really seen Logan except in passing for a few days now. We were both extremely busy with work and I was also busy with planning our wedding. This time without Logan had left me with way too many thoughts. Everything in our lives felt like they were spinning out of control….nothing at the moment was as we planned, in fact it was the complete opposite. I didn't know what to do, I just wanted everything to go back to the way they were.

What I really needed to do was talk to Logan. He was my center. The rational one in our relationship but lately it seemed like we were just in two different places mainly due to our work schedules but it was starting to concern me. I missed him. I missed us. Ugh.

I sighed and pushed opened the door and quietly walked into his office and found him with his head leaning against his hand and his eyes glued to the computer screen looking more tired and worn down than usual. He looked up at me and I could see the dark circles under his eyes. A small smile formed on his lips but it didn't quite reach his eyes which was disappointing. He seemed to take in my attire before glancing at the clock on the wall behind me and frowned.

"Oh crap, Rory I'm so sorry I completely lost track of the time going over these latest contracts for the restructure. I completely meant to head over to Stars Hallow but…"

I quickly put my hand up and he stops rambling looking at me expectantly. "It's ok don't worry about it, I understand." I say smiling walking further into his office and place my bags on one of the guest chairs and he stands up and walks around his desk greeting me with a small kiss. I wrap my arms around him breathing in his familiar scent before pulling away, rubbing his back slightly.

"I know and you are amazing for being so understanding but I know how important this was to you, to Jack. I can't believe I missed his birthday. He must hate me. I can't believe I wasn't there… again." he says and I can see the sincerity in his eyes as he rubs them. "How was it?"

"It was fun, there were bouncy houses, lots of food, music, cake…you know a Lorelei birthday party extravaganza…completely over the top but fun and don't worry Jack doesn't hate you. He could never hate you, you're his cool big brother Logan who buys him all of the coolest toys." I point out before cupping his tired face with my hands. "You look so tired Logan. You need to rest, some sleep." I say and he nods his head in agreement. "I uh brought you a burger from Lukes." I say pointing to the brown paper bag I had placed on his desk and he smiles.

"Thanks I don't think I've eaten since lunch, maybe even breakfast." he says grabbing the bag from my other hand, pulling out the burger and unwrapping it quickly before digging right into it. I watched him eat and after awhile he looks up at me sheepishly. "Sorry, I don't mean to ignore you, I guess I didn't realize how hungry I was."

"No problem I figured as much. You uh tend to forget to eat when you're in the trenches." I said before moving to his side and leaning against his desk, "So your mom was there, at the party. She said it was to support her future in-laws or something." I say and he rolls his eyes. I bite my lip and grab a binder clip on the desk and play with it in my hands nervously. "She uh asked me when I was planning on sending out the invitations for the wedding since its in 6 weeks."

"Those haven't gone out yet?" he said looking at me surprised.

"Uh no…I…I….Logan…" I said gazing into his warm familiar brown eyes suddenly feeling very unsure and I couldn't keep his gaze and I looked away.

"Rory what's going on, why haven't you sent out the invitations for the wedding? I those were ready to go weeks ago." he said grabbing my hand and as I looked up at his face I could see the worry there.

"They were… are. It's just…well, Logan, you know how much I love you, how much I have always loved you." I say looking into his eyes. "But everything has changed these last few months since you took over for your dad. I know it's not your fault but we're exactly where we said we would never be Logan. I think maybe we should hold off for now."

"Wait so…so what are you saying Rory, do you not want to get married anymore?"

"I…yes…but I…I don't know." I stutter looking to the floor.

He quickly lets go of my hand, stands and runs his hand through his hair before staring to pace. I stood there not moving, only my eyes followed him. He looked at me then shook his head and walked over to his bar and poured himself a glass of scotch before downing it one gulp and pouring another one repeating the process.

"Let's just back up a minute Ace and let me understand this. I know things have been hard lately, that I've been working more than ever, but we knew that when my dad…we knew it wasn't going to be easy and I thought you were ok with that."

"I was. I am." I say defensively.

"Ok then you know I have to fix some of the deals my dad did when he wasn't lucid and just taking over everything has been an adjustment with the companies but it won't always be like this Rory."

"I know and you know how much I support you. How proud I am of all of the work you are doing, keeping your family's company together but I..." I said walking back up to him. "When we got back together, when we got engaged we always talked about how you were never going to completely take over HPG, that you would stay with HMV mostly but now here you are running the entire empire. I don't blame you for that because I know that the situation was completely out of your hands but can you honestly tell me that it won't be like this forever."

"Rory."

"I love you Logan. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I do. I can't imagine being anyone else's wife, but right now…" I said feeling tears come to my eyes as I near him, "Right now just isn't the right time."

"So what we postpone the wedding for awhile?"

I opened my mouth to say a yes but nothing comes out. "I…I…"

He looks at me and understanding seems to dawn on him. "You don't want to just postpone the wedding do you, you don't want to get married at all." he says quietly.

"Logan…"

"Do you want to break up?"

"No of course not Logan, how could you think that? I just don't think we should be thinking about getting married right now." I spit out trying to get him to understand but not finding the words that I had rehearsed in my head earlier. Everything was going too fast. How had we gotten to talking about breaking up?

"If you don't think we should get married then you don't think we should be together." He said raising his voice.

"No that's not what I said at all. Don't put words in my mouth Logan." I say feeling myself getting angry. Everything was going wrong. "I just think we shouldn't get married right _now_."

"So what do you want to do Rory, we postpone the wedding indefinitely until things settle down. That could be months, years even and then what in the meantime we just stay engaged…waiting."

"Would that so bad? We'd still be together. Partners just like always." I say raising my hands up.

He sighed loudly and ran his hands through his hair before looking up at me again. "Why does it feel like we're never moving forward, that we're just stuck in the same place?"

I looked at him and felt a sense of déjà vu. This was starting to feel very much like my college graduation all over again. "And why does it feel like with you we always have to be going somewhere. I'm happy with you Logan. Why can't we just be together and let that be enough."

"Let that be enough? Do you hear yourself Rory?" he said pouring himself another drink. "I asked you to marry me and you said yes. You said you wanted to be my wife. We've been making plans for months to get married and now you're telling me you don't want to get married anymore. You've completely blindsided me here Ace, I thought we were happy. I thought we were on the same page and then you come in here saying you want to postpone the wedding, but in fact you don't want to get married. We've been building this life together Rory, so I don't know what you want me to say here."

"We do have a life together and whether we get married or not we will still have that life." I try to reason.

"I'm just trying not go backwards again." he says looking pointedly at me.

"We're not going backwards Logan, we're just staying as we are for now until things settle down." I explain.

He doesn't say anything for a moment and seems to think about it before looking back at me. "And what happens when things do settle down but it doesn't look that much different from how things are right now, will you be ready to marry me then?" He asks and I'm silent for a moment unsure of what to say but my silence seems to give him his answer. "You may say we're not moving backwards Rory, but you don't seem to want to move forward either."

"That's not true Logan."

"Isn't it?" he yells out and I'm slightly taken about by the angry fire I see in his eyes, "I'm the head of two major corporations Rory. I know this wasn't in the original plan, but we both knew that realistically I was probably going to take over HPG someday and it was probably going to look a whole lot like this. So don't full yourself into thinking that once the dust settles and I get everything back together again things will just automatically go back to normal. Don't use that as an excuse for coming in here and saying you want to postpone, cancel, whatever the hell you want to call it, just say it Rory you don't want to marry me. Just admit it Rory you want out."

I felt like I was falling. His words, his anger, his sadness made me reel. I should have been expecting it but I wasn't. I should have been expecting it because he knew me better than anyone but this wasn't what I wanted. This was the last thing I wanted.

"Logan I…" I started to stay but unsure of how to respond. "I want to marry you I do I just…"

"If you want to marry me then let's get married right now Ace. Let's get on the jet right now and fly to Vegas or Hawaii, Paris, pick anywhere in the world you want. Let's just get married. That's what you've been telling me the entire time we've been planning this wedding, is that you just want to get married, well then let's do it." he said standing in front of me with excitement and hope in his eyes.

"I…I…Logan…I…" I wanted to fall into his arms and just say yes, but for the life of me I couldn't say anything and he was right. That's exactly what I had been saying every time Shira and my grandmother called me in to look at another floral arrangement or pick out linens and silverware. I always said I just wanted to be his wife and he always laughed and said that he wanted nothing more than to be my husband right there and then but we would never hear the end of it from his mother and my grandmother and forever was a long time to be nagged by those two, but at that moment I couldn't find the words to just say yes.

"That's what I thought." he said shaking his head sadly picking up a paper clip on his desk and playing with it in his hand.

"Logan…no I love you so much. I want to marry you its just right now with everything with HPG and HMV up in the air I don't…"

"Stop trying to make excuses Rory. This has always been my life, you knew that coming in, you've known it the entire time." he said with sadness in his eyes. "I thought this time was different but I guess not. You're still afraid to move forward and I get it, I get why you're scared but I don't know what you want me to say Rory because I'm ready. I've been ready for a long time. I'm ready to be your husband and I don't want to wait anymore. Our wedding date is six weeks away so I'm asking you to marry me, to be my wife. Let's stop running Ace, I love you and I want to be with you. I know everything is crazy right now but I know that we can get through it. We've been through so much already we can get through this. I promise you we will." he says smiling with so much hope in his eyes. "What do you say Ace, marry me."

I look at him and smile slightly feeling the tears roll down my face. This man, Logan Huntzberger knows me so well. He is everything I want and he loves me so much.

"Logan CNN offered me my own show." I say and I watch as his face falls.

"Oh." he says and he turns his back away from me. I grab his arm lightly to get him to look at me and he shakes me away.

"Logan."

"I'm so stupid, I should have known the minute you started talking about postponing the wedding it had nothing to do with how much I have been working but with you and your future alone."

"No that's not it, our future together Logan, that's all there is." I plead, "Our future."

"Our future? I'm asking you to marry me and you tell me that CNN offered to give you your damn show. You couldn't give me an answer without laying that one on me." he spits out with fire in his eyes. "God Rory do you even care about us, about me or is all you see is your career?"

"Logan that's not fair or true."

"Isn't it?"

"I didn't mean to tell you like that."

"Ok then so how were you going to tell me? This is the future we have together that we're talking about here right. You don't want to get married and you have a job offer with CNN so I'm just trying to figure out where I fit into this life you've created for us here Rory!"

"Logan I know you're mad right now but it's not like that. I want to marry you, I just don't think we should do it right now and the offer from CNN doesn't matter." I try desperately to explain not even understanding myself how things got to this point.

"Of course it matters Rory. You couldn't tell me if you wanted to marry me or not, but instead you told me that you got an offer from CNN but I guess if I'm really looking at it that's my answer right there isn't it." He says looking at me accusingly. "Just admit that you don't want to get married anymore and I'm guessing CNN offered you your dream right, the ability to go overseas to cover the latest story. Looks like you get the dream career after all just at my expense and at the expense of our future."

"Logan."

"Don't Rory. Don't try to come up with some kind of excuse because its clear that you may love me but you're still too scared to get married and make that commitment especially when you have a wide open future in front of you with the perfect career." Logan said. He stopped then shook his head and looked up at me sadly. "I can't do this anymore."

"What…no…no. Logan no it's not like that. I love you. I want to marry you." I say grabbing his arms with tears streaming down my face.

He pries my fingers off his arms and I see him glance at the ring he gave me just a few months ago before kissing my forehead. "I'm sorry Rory I can't."

I stand there completely shell shocked unable to move as he walks out of his office. I hear the ding of the elevator and then silence. My knees finally give out and I fall to the floor in one giant heap. Tears are streaming down my face but I can't think, I can't breathe. What just happened? What did I do?

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><p><strong>AN: I know you all hate me now right? Ugh sorry…but because this is the prologue, starting in Chapter 1, I will be going back to a few months after the ending of Facebook Friends and we can see how everything got to this point in the Prologue. Please be patient with me I don't have very much written yet. This may come out slow but I felt like since I had this chapter done I owed it to all of you to get this out since you've been waiting forever.<strong>

**Thanks and please review – I really want to know what you all think.**

**Follow me on Twitter: ophalynjt**


	2. One

**AN: I bet you can't believe that I'm updating this story huh? Trust me its a surprise to me to. I'm so sorry for the delay. I had every intention of keeping this story updated but life simply got in the way. I was given a promotion at work which meant I was busier and I had to learn an entirely different side of the law then I got a new job which has been a bit of the same and unfortunately on top of it all I have been suffering from writer's block. Anytime I sat down in front of the computer to start typing I just couldn't get anything out.**

**Hope you're all still with me though. I'll try to get another one out to you soon.**

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><p>One<p>

I don't know how long I've sat here in Logan's office, alone on the floor. The tears finally subsided, but I couldn't move. I couldn't get up and walk out that door because I didn't know what was next. I couldn't face going home to the apartment I shared with Logan. I was scared that he wouldn't be there and it would just be empty or I would find him packing his things. Neither option sounded very good. No going home right now was not an option.

What had I done?

I love Logan. I want to marry him. My future is with him. I knew that. I know that. So then why, why couldn't I just say what I really wanted to say instead of just blurting out that I had an offer from CNN? The reality was, the offer with CNN wasn't even a problem. It just meant I would have to give up the Today show, but that was it. It was based in New York, sure I would have to travel a bit but it wouldn't be any different than what I was currently doing. There was no issue there, so why was I stupid and made it sound like I was choosing my career over the man I loved.

Ugh!

Scared Rory Gilmore, that's just who I am. He was right. I'm just running scared which is incredibly stupid considering the fact that I know what I want and it's right there in my grasp. Hell I already had it.

My eyes find their way to the beautiful diamond ring on my finger and tears start to fill my eyes again. How could everything have gone so horribly wrong, when just ten months ago everything was perfect?

_Ten months earlier_

"Logan you better not still be standing in front of that mirror styling your hair." I yelled out as I absentmindedly opened the door to the loft apartment we shared. "We were supposed to be at your mother's party a half hour ago. Shira's going to kill us fo…" I stopped mid sentence as I started walking further into the apartment and noticed rose petals all over the floor, a candlelight dinner was set up on our dining room table and the buffet had from what I could see food covering every inch of it.

Logan appeared from seemingly out of nowhere smiling. He looked handsome in gray slacks and a crisp button down white shirt with his sleeves casually rolled up. "Wha…what's going on? I thought we were going to your mother's party tonight." I asked confused as he came around me to take my coat off then reached for my purse, placing both on the bench before giving me a sweet kiss on my cheek.

"Eh…I decided that celebrating the new year alone with my girl sounded a lot better than hobnobbing with the rich and entitled at one of my mother's boring society parties." he said as he led me to the table. "That is unless you'd rather spend the evening with my mother because in that case we can go."

"No…no, this is definitely much better." I say wrapping my arms around his waist, squeezing gently and he chuckles and kisses my forehead. I take a careful look at the spread he has laid out on the buffet table and it seems to be full of all of my favorite foods from back at Yale. The scene looks wonderfully familiar. I look up and there are garden lights hanging from our ceiling and I quickly look over to our living area and there on the floor is a blanket spread out with a sea of pillows surrounding it. "Logan did you…did you re-create that night you surprised me after coming home from London?"

He smiles shyly and nods as he opens the wine. "Well I didn't have a meteor shower to trick you with so I used my mom's party, which we were excused from by the way, and it's too cold to go up to the roof, but yeah I did."

I smile brightly amazed at what he has done and completely incredulous. "That night was one of the best nights of my entire life. I really loved that night. Thank you for this." I say smiling as he hands me my glass of wine. I take it but quickly put it down before wrapping my arms around him tightly and gazing at his face. "I love this and I love you so much Logan. I can't believe you did this for me."

"Well you know me Ace, I've got to keep you on your toes." he says smiling and I pull his head down and kiss him. It quickly heats up and we're both gasping for air when we finally pull away. He smirks as he looks down at me, "so are you ready to eat?"

"Mm, I think I'm hungry for something else actually." I say smiling as I take his hands as I lead him to living area to made shift bed he's created.

"I like the way you think Ace."

"Me, you're the one who put this seduction spread out, I'm just taking my cues from you Huntzberger." I say jokingly and he growls before picking me and throwing me over his shoulder running the rest of the way to living area, the both of us laughing the whole time. He lays me down gently and my laugh fades away as I take in the way he's looking at me with those beautiful chocolate eyes. I know in that moment, as I always know when Logan looks at me that he loves me, completely and fully. This man loves me like no one else. His love just has a way surrounding me and making me warm and whole and I know I love him in just the same way.

I reach out and pull him closer to me and kiss him and as his kisses trace the contours of my neck I breathlessly whisper, "love me."

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><p>A couple of hours later we are sitting up in the makeshift bed he had made in our living area with empty plates of food pushed to our feet and a glass of wine in our hands. Logan's shirt has found its way onto me as it usually does and he's only wearing a pair of pajama bottoms he grabbed from the bedroom. We had turned the tv on and were watching Ryan Seacrest on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve waiting for the ball to drop. I glanced over at Logan and noticed he was fidgeting and looked a little strange.<p>

"Logan are you ok, you look a little off?" I said and he looked at me and shook his head, "maybe you ate too much. You should know by now that you shouldn't try to keep up with me. It takes years of training to get your stomach at the Gilmore level of eating."

"Uh no my stomach is just fine," he says trying to brush me off, but I can tell that something is off with him. I let it go for a bit and watch Rihanna's performance on tv. When midnight it just a few minutes away Logan fidgets some more and I see his hand reach under the couch. What is he doing? He grimaces and curses under his breath.

"Logan what are you doing? Did you lose something under the couch?" I ask confused.

"No it's fine." he says moving his hand around some more. "Damnit." he says before turning around on his stomach and peering under the couch, trying to grab something.

"What are you looking for? Maybe I can help?" I say pushing some pillows away peering under the couch too.

"No Rory, I've got it." he says but before he can stop me my hand is under the couch searching for I don't know what and I instantly feel something small and hard.

"I think I found it." I exclaim and I grab it and pull my hand out from underneath and take a look at what's in my hand as I sit up. There is a small box in my hand and suddenly I feel my heart start to race. In my gut I know what this box is and as my eyes meet Logan's shocked brown orbs my suspicions are confirmed. In that moment I feel a calm come over me.

"I guess I just can't ever get it quite right." he says shrugging before taking the box from my quivering hands and opening it. Inside is a beautiful large but simple antique looking round diamond ring with smaller diamonds encircling it and on the band. It's absolutely perfect. He takes it from the box before taking my hand and looking into my teary eyes. "I tried this once before and I did it completely wrong. I never imagined back then that I would be lucky enough to get the chance to do it again. I love you Rory Gilmore. You're it for it for me. You amaze me. You've made me believe in myself and that love exists. You've made me happier than I ever thought I could be. I know what life is like without you Rory Gilmore and while I can do it, I know a life without you in it is not really living. I love you and like I told you before I will wait forever for you, but I think, no I believe that the time is right and we shouldn't wait anymore." he took a breath and pushed himself onto his knees. "Ace, Rory will you marry me, will you be wife?"

Suddenly I didn't know how to talk. I opened my mouth and a noise came out but there were no words. I didn't know how to find the words so I just smiled through my tears and nodded my head. His face lit up and I'm not sure who reached for whom, but we were suddenly entangled in each other's arms placing kisses everywhere and somewhere in distance I heard the faint sound of people counting backwards.

When we finally pulled away, Logan smiled placing his hands on the sides of my face. "Did you really just say yes?"

"I don't think I said it yet officially, but I'll say it now." I said smiling brightly. "Yes, Logan Huntzberger I'll marry you! Yes, yes, yes a million times over, yes! I love you."

He pulled the ring out again. I hadn't even realized that it wasn't on my finger yet but he slowly slipped it on the fourth finger of my left hand and out of the corner of my eye I could see fireworks booming in the distance. It was simply magical. It was perfect.

"Looks like you got it right this time Huntzberger." I comment as he pulled me into his arms, cuddling together as I gazed down at the beautiful ring he had just put on my finger.

"Not exactly, you weren't supposed to find the ring." he said laughing. "There was supposed to be a lot more finesse or something like that."

"Maybe, but it was still perfect to me. I love it and I love you." I said kissing him softly before pulling away and bolting up looking around frantically.

"Ace, what's wrong, what are you doing?"

"I have to find my cell so I can call my mom." I answer as I find my purse and fish my phone out.

"You can do it tomorrow." he says as he stands up.

"No I have to do it now; I promised my mom that I would call her right away if you ever proposed." I said, but he grabbed the phone from me. "Hey what are you doing?"

"Lorelai isn't expecting your call until tomorrow morning." he said putting the phone down on the couch smiling. "She said and I quote "don't let my darling daughter call me right away, the two of you should be celebrating horizontally afterwards or obviously I haven't taught her anything." and end quote."

"My mom said that?" I said with my mouth open before something dawned on me. "Wait when did you talk to my mom?"

"At Christmas when I asked her, Luke and your dad for your hand in marriage again." he said matter-of-factly.

"You asked all of them?"

"Well yeah." he said shrugging. "I only asked your mom the first time, but then I realized where we were now and how right being together was and I wanted them all to know that I loved you and I planned on taking care of you, being your partner in life. I just wanted them to all know where I stood because they're your parents and you love them they love you."

I felt tears spring to my eyes once again as I looked at this amazing man, my fiancé. "I can't believe you did that for me."

"I don't know why you can't believe it Ace. I love you and I know each of their opinions matter to you so I wanted make sure I had their blessing, but I probably would have proposed anyway even if they had said no." he said smirking and I punched his arm. "Hey if it makes you feel better, Luke and Christopher promised to break my knee caps if I ever hurt you again."

"That does make me feel better, thank you."

"Hey!"

"What I'm just kidding. I know you won't hurt me again." I said placing a kiss on his lips. "So didn't my mom say something about celebrating appropriately?"

"I believe she did." he said pulling me closer, "I can't believe I'm taking advice from your mom about having sex."

"What, my mom always has the best advice," I whispered nibbling at his earlobe.

"I've got to agree with you there Ace." he said as a moan escaped his lips.

Yup my mom definitely has some good advice.

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><p>AN: Please review. Your reviews always give me the motivation to keep writing. =)

Follow me on twitter ophalynjt


	3. Two

Sorry this took so long. I went back and read Facebook Friends because well I needed to remember exactly where I had those two since I completely turned a 180 in this story. Hope you like it and let me know what you think.

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><p>Two<p>

There have been plenty of moments in my life when I have felt like a complete an utter screw up, my entire childhood felt like one screw up after the other, but never more than now at this very moment. There may be a case to say that isn't my fault, that I didn't screw anything up this time, and maybe that right, but it doesn't make me feel any less like I just screwed up the best thing in my life.

As I sit on this stool at the bar around the corner from the loft we share, I let my mind go over what happened tonight and in the last few months, trying to figure out what I missed. How did it all go so wrong? Were the signs all there and I had just missed them? I thought we were happy. I thought we both wanted the same things. I thought….

"Hey handsome can I buy you a drink?"

I look to my right and find a busty scantily clad blonde leaning against the bar eyeing me up.

"Uh no, I'm good thanks." I say before turning back to my drink.

"Oh come on. You look like you need to relax and take your mind off things. I can certainly help you with that." she says gazing at me through her lashes.

"I don't think so, sorry." I say shaking my head and turning away from her.

For some reason she doesn't seem to take the hint and touches my arm before pressing herself against me. "I can make it worth your while; get your mind off whatever has you in such a funk."

I pried her fingers off me then looked at her seriously. "Like I said, I'm not interested…at all."

She gave me a disgusted look and muttered something under her breath before walking away. I turned back to my drink and my mind wandered back to Rory. There was a time when a hot blond hitting on me was a no brainer. I would have without any hesitation taken up that woman up on her offer in a heartbeat, a mindless distraction from my over privileged life, but then that was all before I had met Rory. She got under my skin like no one else and I never looked back.

Was I single now, is that what happened earlier? I walked out and told Rory I couldn't do it anymore. Were we done? I'm not even sure if I know what I meant by what I said.

Damn. How did this all happen? Just a few hours ago, I was happy. Marrying the woman I loved more than life itself and now…I don't even know where we are now.

This is worse than the times we had broken up before….worse than after she said no to my proposal. We were right there. Happiness was ours. As far as I knew nothing could shake us. Ready to be married or so I thought and then out of the blue she asks to postpone the wedding and then she tells me that she has a job offer from CNN. I have always known how important Rory's career was to her, but I thought we were past the part where her career was more important than our relationship, but after tonight I guess not.

I can't help but think about the last few months. Had I missed something? Was Rory showing signs of being increasingly unhappy? I thought she loved working for the Times and the Today Show. She never mentioned being unhappy. I know I have been working more than normal since I took over the reins of the HPG but I stupidly thought we were ok, that she was fine with it. Was I wrong? Has she been trying to tell me all along that she had changed her mind?

What did I miss?

I took another swig of my scotch and motioned for the bartender to bring me another. I can't believe I screwed this up especially when I promised everyone that I wouldn't.

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><p><strong>Logan Huntzberger<strong>: Engagement party for me and the future Mrs.

**Lorelai Gilmore**: Lucky girl…

**Logan Hutzberger**: Do you think they'll notice if we disappear for awhile?

**Lorelai Gilmore**: Uh it is an engagement party for us so yeah I think they might…but I could be persuaded.

**Finn Morgan**: Seriously? You two need to stop flirting on FB and just get a room already.

**Logan Huntzberger**: Good idea.

* * *

><p>"I honestly can't believe Rory said yes. I thought she might hold out for another few years." Ellie said smiling grabbing my arm and shaking me happily.<p>

"Yeah well I guess I finally wore her down." I say shrugging.

"Oh please. The two of you knew the moment you got back together this was it and it was only a matter of time until you got engaged." Finn scoffed. "Frankly I'm surprised you didn't pop the question sooner. You knew it was in the bag."

"Yeah but we also know how easily reporter girl can be spooked." Colin noted. "Huntz had to take his time."

"Rory was not going to be spooked." Stephanie said, "she was always going to say yes. Logan and her are meant to be. Just because you're afraid of commitment Colin, doesn't mean everyone else is."

"Regardless of whatever you guys think, now is the right time for us and we're happy so shut it." I say smiling.

"Here, here." Jacque adds lifting his glass in the air before wrapping his arm around Ellie.

My friends continue to talk but I tune them out as I look around my parent's home at all of the people gathered. There have been very few society parties that I have ever enjoyed attending. Forming subparties became the only way I was ever to deal with them. They were even less enjoyable when I was the guest of honor and couldn't disappear to said subparties, but this might be the first party I have ever enjoyed especially as the guest of honor or rather one of the guest of honors.

My eyes find Rory with my mother and her friends talking animatedly. My mother of course, upon learning of our engagement, took it upon herself with Emily Gilmore's assistance, to throw Rory and me an engagement party. It was certainly a far cry from Rory's first dinner at this house and Shira's adamant disapproval of Rory when we first began dating, but soon after Rory and I got back together and before Rory moved to New York I took my mother out to a fancy dinner in the city and made sure she understood how much Rory meant to me and that if she wanted to be part of my life in any way then she would have to fully accept Rory. She begrudgingly agreed, but once Shira saw how successful and popular Rory was becoming and that due to Rory's influence I was visiting her more often, Shira finally accepted Rory. Actually, I think she may even like Rory more than she likes either Honor or I now seeing as everyone in New York knows who Rory Gilmore is.

After a moment of gazing at Rory, she looks up and our eyes connect. I see her politely excuse herself from their conversation and I do as well from our friends. When we reach eachother I grab her hand and steer us away from everyone to the library, closing the door behind us.

She simply smiles at me and I walk towards her, wrapping my arms around her. "How much longer do we have to be here for?" she asks giving me her bambi eyes before placing a chaste kiss on my lips.

"Considering the fact that this is our engagement party, I'm afraid to say we're unfortunately going to be the last one's out of here."

"I knew I should of worn flats." she says leaning into me. "My feet hurt."

"Well I'm sure you can sit and they'll all just find their way to you." I say as I brush some hair out of her face before leading her to one of the armchairs and pulling her onto my lap.

"Everyone keeps asking me if we've picked a date and where we're planning on getting married?" she says frowning. "Then they look at me like I have a third eye when I tell them we haven't decided on any of that yet."

I chuckle, "Well this is Hartford society and generally the young ladies of society would have their entire wedding planned out by now. They're just not used to dealing with a successful career woman who doesn't think the way they do. Trust me they'll get over it."

"I was tempted to tell them we are just planning on eloping to Vegas just to see how they would react." she says smirking.

"And did you?"

"No, but I was tempted to on more than one occasion." she says placing her head on my shoulder sighing.

"Well you just tell me when Ace and I'd be more than happy to fire up the old Huntzberger jet and head to Vegas and marry you." I say placing a kiss on her head and rubbing her back.

"Don't tempt me." she mumbles into my shirt before pulling away and gazing at me seriously. "Why couldn't I just pick a normal boy? I always knew you were going to bring me nothing but trouble Huntzberger." she says with a playful glint in her eye and a smile on her face.

"Hey it's not too late Ace. You just have to give me that pretty ring back and you can be rid of me."

"Eh that's not a bad idea."

"Yeah we've had a good run."

"Yeah I guess. I suppose it was good while it lasted." she says playing with her ring. "It was nice knowing you Huntzberger." She says pulling away and standing up but I grab her hand and pull her back down to my lap.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" I say gazing down at her hand.

"Oh you mean this?" she says bringing her hand up and flashing her engagement ring. "Couldn't I keep it; I'm rather fond of it?"

"Nope, that ring and I are a package deal." I say pulling her closer.

"Darnit I really love this ring too." she says seemingly mulling over her options before wrapping her arms around my neck. "Well then I guess I'll just have to keep you too then."

"Even if I'm more trouble than its worth?"

"What can I say," she says smiling, "I guess I just love you enough to keep you around forever."

I smile before capturing her lips with mine. It starts out slow but when her fingers work their way into my hair, tugging slightly, it quickly escalates and I turn her so that she's straddling my lap. My hands work their way up her bare thighs pushing her dress up until I'm cupping her bottom pulling her closer to me.

Behind me I hear someone clear their throat and Rory quickly jumps off me and I stand up attempting to cover up my arousal. I turn to find Finn, Colin, and Honor behind us smiling. I turn to Rory who is blushing profusely straightening out her dress and trying to no avail hide behind me.

"No need to hide love, we all know how hard it is for the two of you to keep your hands off of each other." Finn says smiling.

"Yes but we would think the two of you would refrain from mauling each other while in public and in the presence of your family members and business associates." Colin added.

"Shut it Colin." I said glaring at my friend while wrapping my arm around Rory.

"Be nice Logan." Honor scolds me, "Colin is just stating the obvious. We all know how much you and Rory love each other but can you imagine what would have happened had someone other than us found the two of you making out over here?"

"Yeah, yeah." I say glaring at my sister and friends. "Was there a reason that you all came in here to bother us?"

"Well it is your party so we thought we'd celebrate with you." Finn said.

"But your mom also wanted us to find the two of you so the toasts could begin." Ellie added.

"Then I guess we should go then," Rory said quickly, "but uh can we please keep the microphone away from Finn."

"Hey I object to that." Finn cried out as we all laughed. "I have a very beautiful heartwarming speech planned."

"No." I say simply putting my hand on his shoulder and shaking my head so he gets the message.

"But…"

"No."

He frowns and says a few things under his breath that I can't hear before walking away with his shoulders slumped and we all follow behind.

"Oh Logan, Rory, good you're here. Where on earth did the two of you run off to? Everyone has been asking me where you went and your father and the Gilmores want to give a toast now." My mother rambles on quickly before pushing us towards the center of the room and signaling the waiters to bring the champagne out.

"Here we go." I whisper to Rory as I hand her a glass of champagne.

"Where did the two of you disappear to?" Lorelai says as stands beside us with Luke following closely behind. "You two just mysteriously disappeared all of the sudden."

"Just getting some air Lorelai." I answer.

"Yeah I doubt there was very much air involved in what the two of you were doing." she says grinning wickedly.

"Lorelai, really?" Luke grumbles.

"What, they're engaged, living together. You don't have to be a prude Luke."

"Can we not talk about our daughter and her fiancé doing stuff right now." Christopher says as he joins us.

"Ugh, really mom." Rory says frowning.

"What it's not like you weren't all thinking the same thing. Sheesh." Lorelai says.

"Ladies and gentleman may I have your attention please." Mitchum says in front of the gathered crowd.

My father gives a surprising beautiful and heartfelt speech, but somewhere towards the end he gets a look in his eye and he mentions something about an Anna. My mother touches his arm and he seems to snap out of whatever line of thought he was in and finishes his speech. It was odd but I couldn't think about it for too long because the Gilmores were then giving a speech and then Lorelai and Christopher and unfortunately Finn got a hold of the microphone and gave a touching but nonsensical speech before Colin and Stephanie pulled the microphone from his hands.

I let go of Rory's hand and stepped in front of the circle that had formed and took the microphone. Rory looked back at me with a confused look on her face but I just smiled at her.

"I just want to thank everyone to coming here tonight to celebrate with Rory and me. I'd like to thank my mother and Emily for putting together this wonderful party." I say and I watch as my mother and Emily beam at the recognition. "I must say I feel exceptionally grateful to be in this position because I remember about 6 years ago I was speaking to room just like this one and I nervously asked this beautiful woman to marry me and I was unceremoniously rejected." Everyone laughs and Rory blushes and covers her face. I reach out and grab Rory's hand and pull her close to me. "But now here we are, years later and I finally got my yes."

I pull away from Rory slightly and look into her eyes. "I am so very lucky to be the man that you have chosen to spend the rest of your life with. I love you and in front of all of these people I promise that I will love you for the rest of my life and I will work every day to not screw this up because lord knows I've screwed up enough things in my life, but you, you Rory Gilmore are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love you."

Rory gives me the biggest smile before pulling me towards her and kissing me soundly.

"To Rory and Logan."

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><p>an: Please review!

Follow me on twitter ophalynjt


	4. Three

**A/N: So, so sorry that this is so late. I have no excuses.**

**I'm sorry for the formatting issue on the last chapter. I was in a hurry to get it out and forgot to make the timelines more clear. Just for clarification – in this story the first part will always be in the present and the second, longer portion after the break is in the past.**

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story and I just want to take a moment to address some of those reviews generally. I like angst probably more than I love the happy endings which is why I chose to begin this story with a maybe breakup and why I'm choosing to tell this story this way. As you can see from the first couple of chapters, Rory and Logan have been happy, they got engaged, in love everything was good so this story is really a story of how they got to that point in the prologue. Life unfortunately is sometimes messy and complicated and for a couple the best test of relationship is if they can overcome them together.**

**Thanks and please review.**

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><p><strong>Three<strong>

_Present_

As I pushed the door to our loft open, I was instantly hit with the deafening sound of silence. Logan wasn't home that was for sure. Whenever he was home, there was always some sound in the background, the TV, music, something…and the silence, my tell tale sign that Logan wasn't home was heart breaking.

I dropped my purse and keys onto the hall table and slowly made my way up the stairs to our room. I flip the light switch, secretly hoping that I will just find him already asleep on the bed but as the light fills the room I see the bed is exactly as I left it this morning. I take a deep breath and turn and walk into the walk in closet we share, afraid at what I might find, but I'm relieved to find Logan's suitcase and overnight bag still on the floor and his side of the closet looks to be untouched. He hasn't left…yet.

I walk back out and sit on the edge of the bed unsure of what to do. It looks like he hasn't even been home yet. Where could he possibly be? He was so hurt and angry; I just hope he hasn't done something stupid.

I run my hands through my hair and pick up my cell phone and scroll until I find the familiar name.

"Love." I hear have a few seconds.

"Finn have you seen Logan?" I ask warily.

"Huntz…no I haven't seen him since the other night at your place." he says, "don't tell me you lost him."

"Something like that." I mutter quietly.

"What do you mean? What's going on love, where's Huntz?" Finn asks.

"We sort of got in a fight…I don't know what happened really it all just went so wrong so fast." I start to explain, feeling the panic begin to rise again in me. "Finn I think we might have a broken up. I think I really ruined it this time."

"Ok slow down and tell me what happened love."

"I went to see Logan at his office because he missed Jack's birthday party so I brought him some food. We started talking about the wedding I think and it came up that I've been holding off on sending the invitations to the wedding and he asked me why I told him that I wasn't sure with everything going on if now was a good time for us to get married. I never meant to say or imply that I didn't want to get married but when we were talking I just got so tongue tied and I couldn't say anything right and before I knew it I'm telling him that CNN offered me my own show and basically it's like the graduation proposal all over again and he told me he couldn't do this anymore and left. I've ruined it again Finn, I don't know what to do Finn!" I say sobbing into the phone now.

"Rory calm down, I'm sure it's just some misunderstanding and he's going to come home and you guys will make up." he says trying to reassure me.

"I don't know Finn…he's not here and it's been a couple of hours. We've had fights before but this one…it just feels different." I say wiping my eyes.

"I'm sure he's fine Rory."

"But what if he got so mad that he went out drinking and got in a fight…you know how unreasonable he can be when he gets drunk and angry." I say thoughts of possible scenarios begin to run through my head. "Oh God I should call the hospitals. He could be lying unconscious in a hospital right now or worse in a ditch somewhere. I need to go find him Finn!"

"Ok look Rory calm down, I'm going to go out and find him just to ease your mind and I'm sure everything is going to be ok." Finn says.

"Ok." I say then bite my lip nervously, "Finn when you see him will you just tell him that I love him and convince him to come home please."

"Of course love." Finn says softly, "don't worry; he'll be home before you know it."

I end the call and crawl into the bed, not bothering to change my clothes, clinging to that small hope that Finn was right and that everything would be alright, but there was a nagging feeling in my gut that he was wrong.

* * *

><p><em>A few months earlier<em>

"Hi, I'm meeting another person here, the reservation is under Gilmore." I say to the hostess.

"Rory!"

I look up and notice Paris in the corner waving to me and smile before making my way through the crowd over to her.

"I can't believe I'm actually seeing you in person." I say as I greet her with a hug before taking a seat across from her. "I didn't think you actually left the hospital."

"Hey I leave the hospital." she says defensively.

"Yeah, to occasionally sleep and shower, but I'm willing to bet that you do most of that at the hospital." I say laughing before giving my drink order to the waitress. "I'm just glad I get to see you in person."

"Well the chief sort of ordered me to take 48 hours off away, mentioned something about liability or something I wasn't really listening," Paris explains frowning. "I mean can you believe them. I'm one of the best surgical residents they have and they tell me that I work too much. I'm sorry if I take having someone's life in my hands seriously!"

"Ok Paris. I think they just don't want you to burn out and make a mistake or something. Everyone needs a break once in awhile." I say attempting to calm her down before smirking. "We all know what happens when you get overworked and stressed. Need I remind you of your tenure as the Editor of the Yale Daily News hmmm?"

She mutters something under her breath frowning before eyeing me which makes me laugh. "Ok let me see it."

"See what?"

"The ring Huntzberger finally put on your finger. Is it the same one as before?" she asks and I lift my hand up to show her shaking my head. She looks at it for a second before commenting, "Well I guess it's better than the first one. I just hope it's not a blood diamond."

"It's not." I say simply.

"How do you know? Is that what Huntzberger told you."

"He did."

"Are you sure you can believe him?"

"Logan knows how I feel about that, so yes, I'm sure."

"Hmph."

"So I'm glad you decided to come to New York especially since you weren't able to come for the engagement party." I say.

"I thought you said you were ok with my not coming to that." she says frowning again.

"I was, not complaining," I say putting my hands up. "There's something that I wanted to ask you."

She looks up at me skeptically but doesn't say anything.

"You know Paris you really need to stop scowling." I say and she just scowls even further and I laugh, "Anyway I'm glad you decided to come to New York because I was hoping you would be one of my bridesmaids."

"You want me to be one of your bridesmaids? Seriously?" she says looking fairly surprised, "you know I'm not graceful or elegant or anything and I'm assuming since you're marrying Huntzberger and everyone in the world knows who the two of you are you're going to have some huge society wedding. I don't think my being a bridesmaid is such a good idea."

"Paris, despite our rocky start you have become one of my best friends. You've been there with me through every aspect of my relationship with Logan and you've been there when I needed you and you've pushed me when I didn't know I needed to be pushed. There are only three women I know who I want standing up there with me when I get married and you're one of them." I say smiling, "trust me I'm sure."

"As long as you're sure." she says slowly.

"Like I said Paris I'm sure." I reply smiling.

Paris seems to take my offer in, playing with her napkin before nodding slightly and for a brief second I see a hint of emotion in her eyes before she put her wall up again. "Ok I guess I can do it." she says without any hint of emotion in her voice.

"Thank you Paris." I says smiling brightly.

"So when is this wedding taking place anyways?"

"September 15. But you may need to take a few days off before the wedding," I say and I see a scowl begin to form on her face again. "I know, I know, but I promise you I won't drag you to a bunch of fittings and what not. I know how busy you are and how much you like to work."

"Well ok I guess that will be fine, but you'd better not put me in one of those hideous bridesmaids concoctions just to make yourself feel better and especially nothing in pink. I hate pink." she says and I nod my head amused, "The chief is always after me to actually use those vacation days I have so I guess I could do that."

"Well perfect then."

"Rory?"

I look up to see Mitchum standing beside me and I stand up to give him a warm hum. Sometimes it's still amazing to me that after everything that happened in our past and how much I once hated that man, that we actually have a warm relationship now. "Mitchum, what are you doing here? You remember my friend Paris Gellar from Yale don't you? She's a surgical resident ant John Hopkins." I ramble.

"It's good to see you again Paris." Mitchum says politely acknowledging Paris before turning back to me. "Where is that fiancé of yours tonight Rory?"

"Tonight is a bit of a girl's night." I say sitting back down. "Logan I believe is across town at some business meeting."

"Ah yes, that's right. I forgot about that." he says before glancing back at what I assume is a business associate sitting a table a few feet away. When he turns back to me his face and demeanor changes slightly as he looks at me and doesn't say anything.

"Mitchum?"

"Anna how…how long have you been here?" he says with a confused look on his face.

"What? Mitchum are you ok?" I say confused touching his hand and flinches but it seems to startle him out of whatever daze he was in.

"Huh?" he shakes his head and his eyes find mine again and he glances around the restaurant. "Oh uh um…yes Rory I'll just let you and your friend get back to your dinner, if you'll excuse me."

"What was that?" Paris asks me when Mitchum is seated at his table. "It's like his head went somewhere else for a minute."

"You noticed that too huh?" I say glancing at Mitchum worriedly.

"Uh yeah kind of hard not to notice and who's Anna?" she asks.

"I have no idea." I say a bad feeling coming over me.

LRLRLRLR

"Honey I'm home." I yell out as I open the door of our apartment, hearing music playing from within.

"You never get tired of doing that do you?" Logan says smiling meeting me in the hallway and I shake my head smiling before he bends down slightly giving me a kiss and helping me out of my coat. "Hello."

"Hello."

We make our way over to the TV room and settle on the couch and Logan pulls my feet into his lap. It's become a bit of our evening ritual, just relaxing and talking together on the couch. "So did Paris say yes?" he asks his fingers starting to rub circles around the bottom of my foot.

"Yes she did but only after a little bit of convincing." I say remembering what happened at the restaurant, "hey have you seen your father lately?"

"Not really. I mean I've seen him at a few minutes in meeting but I haven't spoken to him in awhile, why?"

"I ran into him at the restaurant with Paris tonight and I don't know it was weird, out of the blue he seemed to forget where he was and then he called me Anna. It only lasted a moment, but it was strange and then I remembered that the same thing seemed to happen when he was giving the speech at our engagement party." I explain and Logan frowns, "At the party I didn't really think anything of it, but then it happened again and I don't know I guess I'm a little worried about your dad."

"I noticed it at the engagement party too." Logan said sighing. "I actually tried to bring it up to him at the office but he brushed it off as though it was nothing and I now I'm thinking he's been trying to avoid talking to me."

"Do you know who Anna is?"

"Anna?" he repeats and I can see he's trying to place the name, "I think he may have mentioned he had an old girlfriend named Anna once."

"Logan," I say taking a breath, "Paris thought that well, that maybe your father was suffering from early onset Alzheimer's or some sort of Dementia."

"She thinks that?"

"She wasn't sure, but she says she's seen patients before that had Alzheimer's get that same look in their eye before they lost lucidness and she thinks that maybe…" I say feeling unsure and horrible for even bringing this up.

"Oh…" he says quietly.

"Logan, what are you thinking?" I say moving closer to him and placing my chin on shoulder.

"I'm not sure. I mean yeah I've noticed that he's been acting strange on occasion, our engagement party being one of them, but this is my dad. He's not that old and I can't imagine that my dad would have Alzheimer's you know." he says and I can seen the worry in his eyes.

"We don't know that he does for sure."

"We may not have a confirmed diagnosis but the fact that I've been quietly worried about him and other people have noticed tells me it's probably true."

"Why didn't you tell me that you thought there was something wrong with your dad?" I ask, "I could have helped or something, been there for you."

"I don't know." he says running his hand through his hair, "Denial maybe? I figured maybe if I didn't say anything then it didn't exist. If there's one thing we Huntzberger's are good at its pretending there isn't a problem."

"Maybe we're wrong."

"Maybe, but we both know that's unlikely."

"So now what? What should we do?" I ask gently.

Logan sighs and opens his mouth to answer but is interrupted by his cell phone ringing on the coffee table.

"Huntzberger."

"Logan!" I can hear his mother's frantic screech on the phone.

"Mom, what's wrong?" he asks standing up suddenly. I can't hear what his mother is saying, but I see Logan's shoulders sag and he brings his hands up to face pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ok yeah I'm on my way. Call Michael and tell him to meet me there." he says before hanging up the phone.

"Logan, what's going on? Who's Michael?" I say following him as he searches for his keys and wallet.

"Michael is my father's attorney. He's meeting me at the police station because my father was arrested."

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><p><strong>AN: Please review.**

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	5. Four

_A/N: I know I'm horrible at updating and if you're reading this thank you so, so much with sticking with this story and continuing to read it. I was hoping to get this one out to you during the holidays but two kids out of school and the holidays equals no time. Oh well._

_Just some reading notes for you to keep an eyes out for. The first part is the present (same time as the prologue so post fight) and the latter part is about six months prior. There is also an italicized portion during the past section that is a memory of an earlier conversation. Hope that isn't too confusing but I think you guys will get it._

_Please, please review and please stick with me. I know I'm slow. I'll try to get better._

_Thanks._

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><p><strong>Four<strong>

_Present_

Slouched on the bar stool in front of my scotch, I contemplate again whether or not I should go home. The idea had crossed my mind several times. I know I should but I can't seem to pick myself up from this barstool and move. I'm afraid to go home. Afraid of what awaits me when I walk through that door. The scenarios running through my head are endless.

There is the possibility that I could go home and that Rory would greet me, apologize and say it was all just a misunderstanding and I would apologize for being so stupid and then we spend the rest of the night appropriately making up. This was option that I wished the most would happen but in my head I knew it wasn't logical because as I continue to sit here and think more about it, yeah we could both say we were sorry but that didn't mean our problems were automatically gone, and it felt like after tonight we had more problems than either of us were previously aware of.

Then there is the possibility that I could go home and find Rory's stuff completely cleared out with a note saying she went to Stars Hallow to think. This possibility is the one that has given me the most cause for pause from leaving this barstool and the one I believe was the most plausible...unfortunately. Rory by her own admission was a runner although this time it looked like maybe I had done the running.

"Thought I'd find you here mate."

"Finn." I say without turning to look at him, finally taking another sip of my drink. "Did she call you?"

"By she, I'm assuming you're referring to your lovely fiancé, then yes she called me to find you and bring you home." Finn said as the bartender set a drink in front of him. "So care to tell me what you're doing here."

"Since you spoke to Rory I'm assuming she already told you."

"She told me you got into a fight and that there was some sort of misunderstanding, but I'd rather here what happened from you." he said taking a sip from his drink, "so care to tell me what happened."

"Just leave it Finn." I say downing the rest of my drink before putting my hand out, calling the bartender for another one. He looks to Finn who nods his head before pouring me another scotch. "I need your permission to drink now?"

"No, but I'm guessing you've been here awhile and I doubt the bartender wants to lose his license if you end up killing yourself by way of alcohol poisoning or doing something stupid because you've been drowning your sorrows in a bottle of scotch." he comments and I just stare at the amber liquid in the glass the bartender has set in front of me.

"What did she say?" I ask after a few moments of silence.

He sighs then stares at me until I look in his direction. "She told me that she told you that she wanted to postpone the wedding and that you got in a fight and that she told you about her offer from CNN and that you left and she hadn't seen you since."

"That's it? She didn't say anything else?"

"Does it matter what she said mate, she was crying on the phone clearly upset."

I sigh feeling a twinge of guilt creep through me at the mention of Rory crying and put my head on the bar feeling defeated. "I don't know what to do Finn."

"What happened mate?" He prodded. "If I know the two of you, there is nothing that the two of you can't get over. I'm sure this all just a misunderstanding and the two of you can get through this."

"I don't know if that's possible this time Finn. I don't know if we can come back from this one." I say dejectedly.

"Sure you can. You guys spent five years apart, fought your demons and still came back together." he said sound upbeat.

"I don't think we ever actually ever overcame any of those demons. Just said we were good, pushed aside whatever doubts we had aside and now they've come back." I say.

"Ok you need to tell me what happened. What makes you think that this time is different, that you can't come back from this." he asks.

"I've taken over the empire…"

"And…" he asks looking at me oddly, clearly not understanding. "You both knew when you got back together you were going to take over one day."

"Yes but not until years later when we had already married, had a few kids, when Rory was completely settled in her career and definitely not under these circumstances. The fact that it's happening all now, before we're married has just given Rory time to think and the fact is the future I had to offer her six months ago isn't as fabulous as the one I have to offer right now."

"Rory loves you mate, she wants to be with you."

"She wants to postpone the wedding because she has doubts Finn and because CNN offered her the opportunity to do what she always wanted to do." I counter. "I'm the guy that she has loved who now has broken every promise that I have made to her."

"And again I say, Rory loves you, she wants to be with you, this is all just one big misunderstanding."

"Maybe and maybe love just isn't enough anymore."

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><p><strong><em>A few months earlier<em>**

"Mom!" I yelled out when I spotted my mother as I entered the police station with Rory in tow. "Where's dad? What's going on?"

"Oh Logan, Rory I'm so glad you're here. It's just absolutely awful." Shira said as Logan pulled her into a hug. "

"Mom, calm down what's going on, what happened?" I ask walking with my mom and Rory to an empty corner.

"They arrested your father because they say he assaulted one of his business associates!" Shira exclaimed.

"Dad did what?" I exclaimed completely confused.

"I'm not entirely sure what happened because they won't let me see him, but Michael is in with him now and apparently they had dinner and then they had drinks and then something happened and your father got upset and started hitting him." My mother explained dabbing at her eyes.

My father got in a fight. Mitchum got in a fist fight with someone. Something definitely wasn't right here.

"Ok mom, you have to be honest with here. There's something going on with dad that neither of you want anyone knowing about isn't there?" I say and my mother looks away and starts biting her lip nervously but I grab her chin and force her to look at me. "Mom, tell me…now."

"Logan." Rory says touching my arm in an attempt to calm me down.

I sigh and run my hands through my hair before leading my mom to some empty seats. "Mom you need to tell me what's going on. I know dad has been acting strangely lately, he seems to be forgetting things more and more and when I've tried to talk to him about it he shuts me down. He basically has refused to talk to me. When Rory saw him earlier with who I'm assuming is the business associate he assaulted he got confused for a second and called her Anna. So come on mom, tell me what's going on."

My mom's lip begins to quiver and she dabs her eyes, "Your father didn't want to say anything until he absolutely had to, but I suppose it's all for naught now. I told him he should tell you but you know your father he's so stubborn and now…"

"Mom just tell me what's happening." I say getting frustrated and I feel Rory's hand on my shoulder again and it instantly has the calming effect I'm sure she intended it to have.

"Logan your father…your father he was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's."

And there it was. It was what I had been expecting but it didn't still stop the wind from seemingly being knocked out of me at the same time. Alzheimer's. My father had Alzheimer's. In that moment I knew that life wasn't going to be the same again.

* * *

><p>It was dawn by the time Rory and I made it back home. Neither of us spoke on the way home or as we exhaustedly crawled into bed, but neither of us went right to sleep either even though we were both physically and emotionally drained. My head was spinning with thoughts of everything that had transpired this evening or rather in the early morning hours.<p>

Luckily for us dad's business associate had refused to press charges against dad and he was free to go home, and thankfully I was able to keep the news of my dad's fight at bay because media tycoon Mitchum Huntzberger getting into a fight would have definitely been front page news. One of the perks of owning a publishing empire, sometimes you could control the news before it got too far. Sometimes.

I was grateful that it was a weekend and that I could hold off on my new reality for a little while. I could feel the weight of it creeping up on me though and that scared me. I turned my head to look at Rory who was staring up at the ceiling and I could tell she was deep in thought. I wondered what she was thinking about. I know my father's news shocked her too despite the fact that she already suspected. I turned back to look at the ceiling as well thinking about the conversation with my dad and wondering what was going to happen next.

"_Why didn't you tell me what was going on with you, dad?" I asked him feeling annoyed and off balance and I felt Rory put a comforting hand on my arm. I looked to her beside me and took a calming breath and put my hand on hers. _

_I looked around the room at the others. We were in my parents' penthouse in New York City, Honor and Josh had joined us and Honor was silently crying with my mother on one of the couches with Josh standing unsurely behind them, my father's attorney was on another looking troubled, I was sure why he was here but my father had insisted, and my father was standing out to the far side of the room looking out the window before he turned to look at me._

"_I wanted to. I meant to I did, but I don't know call it denial or just putting off the inevitable. I meant to tell the two of you." he said looking at both Honor and me, "but I just kept finding reasons to put it off."_

"_Like what dad? What could be more important than us knowing that you have Alzheimer's?" I prod feeling myself become more agitated. "I'm sorry but as your children I think you should have told us the minute you found out."_

"_I didn't want to burden you with this."_

"_Daddy you aren't a burden on us." Honor said sniffling._

_He smiled at her sadly, "Maybe you don't think so Honor but for me I would be. When have you ever seen me ask any of you for help personally? I'm Mitchum Huntzberger, I'm supposed to be indestructible. This disease it changes everything for me and for all of you. I needed time to deal with it on my own. I knew I had it and I was trying to take the appropriate steps to slow down the progress since no one knows exactly how quickly this disease progresses. I meant to tell you but days turned into months and I just kept finding excuses to not tell you, telling myself it wasn't the right time."_

"_Ok I get all that dad, but why didn't you tell us this earlier? We could have helped you." Honor said. "How far has it progressed?"_

"_When I was diagnosed it was Stage two, early enough I guess. The doctor's say I've probably now progressed to stage four. It's getting worse." he explains._

"_Jeez dad, how long have you known about this?" I ask._

"_For about a year." he says sighing after a moment. "Just my doctors and I knew about it until I was forced to tell your mother a couple of months ago after an episode and well Michael found out a couple of weeks ago."_

"_A year…" I repeat not sure of how to feel and then sudden realization hits me, "that's when you started encouraging me to work less and actually have a personal life outside of the office, that's when you started pushing me to do the revamp at the Chicago Post-Daily because you knew that Rory was there, it's when you started working less and started spending more time with all of us."_

"_Everyone in this room knows that I have never been the best husband and father and when something like this happens you realize how much you missed out on and what you could be missing out on and I just…"_

"_Oh daddy." Honor says flying up off the couch before wrapping her arms around our father. Beside me I feel Rory squeeze my arm and place her head on my shoulder._

_After a minute my father releases Honor before looking to each of us again, "I wanted to tell you, but you were happy and I didn't want to put a damper on that all. Things have been good for us as a family, maybe for the first time ever." he says smiling and his face changes from sadness to seriousness before turning to look directly at me "It's become increasingly clear that the disease has progressed and I'm forgetting things more and more and I…I just can't be effective anymore." he says frowning. "I don't think…no, I know especially after tonight I am no longer able to effectively be in charge of Huntzberger Publishing Group." _

_I hear a gasp from Rory beside me but even though deep down inside I know what my father is talking about and I knew this was coming, in that very moment I am unable to comprehend just what exactly he is saying._

"_You're up Logan." My father says when I don't say anything. "Effective immediately you are now the CEO of the entire of Huntzberger empire."_

"I don't know what to do."

"About what exactly?" Rory asks turning her head to look at me.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to run the entire empire. I know it's what I've been groomed for my entire life but now I'm it, it's just me and I just…my father has always been right behind me, guiding me, making sure I didn't mess up too much and now…"

"Your father is still there Logan and I don't think Mitchum has had to fix any of your mistakes in quite a long time. Just because he's stepping down and he has Alzheimer's doesn't mean he's gone." Rory points out sitting up, "and you know what to do you're just unsure and surprised because you didn't see this coming so soon but you know what to do. You've been beyond successful with Huntzberger Media Ventures for awhile now. Hell, you've taken your family's outdated news media company out of its funk and revitalize to be the standard for news in the 21st century. Everyone, even you knew you were going to take over the empire eventually, so it's been moved up, big deal. You can do this Logan."

"Your faith in me is awe inspiring." I say smirking and she slugs my arm.

"I know this isn't ideal, especially with everything going on with your dad, but you taking over the family business is probably the easiest thing about this whole situation." she says.

"You really believe that?" I say doubtfully.

"You're good at what you do Logan. HPG is in good hands with you, you're going to keep pushing this company to the next level so that it's ready for our son or daughter to take over one day." she says smiling.

"Our son or daughter?" I say raising my eyebrows. "I thought you wanted our children to choose their own future."

"I do, but I'm pretty sure we're going to have at least one that decides they want to take over the family business. They will be Huntzbergers after all." she says smiling and I pull her to me in a sweet gentle kiss before pulling her into a hug and kissing her forehead, holding her close.

"I know you knew I was going to take over eventually but this wasn't supposed to happen until years down the road, definitely not when we were just starting out. I know you believe I can handle this and that much won't change but it's going to be me in charge of both companies now and I'm probably going to be really busy for awhile. Things are going to change Ace."

"Logan I get that, there's no need to warn me…"

"But there is Ace. This isn't exactly what you signed up for, a future father-in-law with Alzheimer's and a most likely absent fiancé. If you want to Ace, you can take an out right now." I say looking at her as she sits back up. "I wouldn't blame you for wanting to bail."

"Logan Huntzberger you have had said some really stupid and idiotic things to me in your life, but this is probably the most idiotic. I love you and when I said I'd marry you, that was me telling you that I wanted to be with you through everything, the good and the bad whether or not I actually said the vows or not. I'm in this with you Logan, I'm not going anywhere, you need to trust that I'm not going to say it again."

I looked at her trying to find any trace of doubt in her eyes but I find none. "Ok as long as you're sure."

"Didn't I just tell you I wouldn't say it again Huntzberger."

"Ok, ok." I say putting my hands up in the air in mock surrender before pulling her back to me.

"We're a team Logan. We'll get through this together, I'm not going anywhere."

"Good. Me either."

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><p>AN: Please review.

Follow me on twitter ophalynjt


	6. Five

**I know, I know this is very late...again. I'm sorry. For all of you that have continued to read this story and left reviews...thank you. Please be patient with me. Finding the motivation to write these days has been difficult, not to mention the time. I'm trying and if you're patient with me I promise I'll keep getting these out to you even it is slowly. If you haven't read Facebook Friends yet...I think for this chapter you probably should go read it first. It will give this chapter a little more perspective.**

**anyway if you're reading this...thanks for sticking with me.**

**O**

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><p><strong>Five<strong>

_Present_

I wake up suddenly, startled. Disoriented I sit up and I look around my room, my lamp was still on but it was dark outside. My eyes immediately wander to Logan's side of the bed but a wave of sadness washes over me when I find it empty and untouched, he hasn't come yet. I look to the clock on the nightstand and am surprised to see it read 2:25 a.m.

I'm fairly certain that something had woken me up, but what? Maybe Logan came home and crashed on the couch? I listen carefully but hear nothing coming from downstairs. The apartment is completely silent. I look around and see the green light on my phone blinking. That must be it. I pick up my phone surprised to see a text alert with Logan's name on it. I hold it for a moment, unsure if I want to see what it says but after another moment I slide my phone on and touch the message app to open it up.

Logan Huntzberger: _Staying with Finn tonight. I'll see you tomorrow._

Simple and no other explanations. Usually Logan's emails and texts were full of details and insights as to how he was feeling like _working late – merger with Oklahoma papers is going south_… _Argh. Heading out for a run, movie night really killed me, _etc_. _

This text was definitely different. It was distant, formal almost robotic. I didn't like it one bit and it had me reeling slightly leaving an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I held my phone unsure of what to do. Should I reply? The time stamp on the text was five minutes ago so he was probably still awake and would see a text if I sent it right away. I thought about going for my typical humor (_ok but be sure to sleep with one eye open. You know how Finn has that little habit of cuddling in the nude with you_) but I wasn't sure how he would take it especially if I wasn't his favorite person in the world right now and he was getting ready to leave me for good.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard for a while until I finally settled on a simple _Ok_. I pressed send reluctantly and another wave of sadness washed over me.

In just a few short hours my world had been turned upside down and now here I sat alone in the bed that I shared with the love of my life unsure of where we stood, if he was even going to come home. I was grateful for the fact that Finn had found him because it meant he wasn't lying unconscious in a ditch somewhere but the fact that he opted to go to Finn's place instead of the home we shared had me feeling scared and uncertain.

I picked up my cell phone from the bed and typed out another quick message to Logan and sent it before I could talk myself out of it. _I miss you._

After a moment I heard the distinctive and familiar ping alerting of a new text and my heart soared a bit.

Logan Huntzberger: _I miss you too. I love you Rory_.

Tears immediately welled up in my eyes at Logan's simple words, but they were something good from him, promising even.

Me: _I love you too._ I wrote back a small smile forming on my face.

Logan Huntzberger: _I'll see you tomorrow._

Me: _See you tomorrow. Good night._

I put my phone back on the nightstand knowing I probably wouldn't hear anything more from him tonight and settled into bed. He still loved me. He wasn't coming home tonight but he said he missed me and he loved me. That was something right?

I looked over to my phone when another ping filled the silent room.

Finn Morgan: _Don't worry I'll take care of him. He's ok. _

I smiled and sent a reply. _Thanks for being such a good friend Finn. Take care of him for me please._

Finn Morgan: _Of course love._

I put the phone back down again and settled into bed. I wasn't sure what the morning would bring but two texts from Logan and I was suddenly feeling slightly more hopeful than I was earlier.

* * *

><p><em>A few months earlier<em>

**RORY GILMORE: **_Anyone want to take my place picking flower arrangements and china patterns today? I don't want to. Can't they just magically appear at the wedding? Help!_

With the announcement of Mitchum stepping down and Logan taking over the reins of Huntzberger Publishing Group we expected things to get crazy immediately but surprisingly there weren't too many changes. Yes Logan's schedule is busier than it used to be and maybe we texted and emailed more than we actually saw eachother, but he was still able to make it home for dinner most nights even if he had to take care of more work in his home office after. Surprisingly though it wasn't as big of a change as I had secretly feared and things seemed to be going well. Logan was determined to not become his father and so far he was succeeding, even if we were only a little over a month into the change.

The plans for the wedding were moving forward too with my mother, grandmother, Honor, and Shira's help. Apparently having Mitchum at home all day was driving Shira crazy and she didn't know what to do with herself so I relented and agreed to allow Shira to help me plan the wedding with a few caveats of course. And with Shira allowed to help my grandmother of course insisted on helping, which meant in order to keep them both in line and not turn our wedding into some large grandiose society wedding that I'm sure would rival Will and Kate's and my insanity intact I asked my mother and Honor to help. This was my wedding after all and even though this was a wedding that would merge two of Hartford's biggest families, Logan and I were adamant it would not be a huge society wedding. We were definitely not Will and Kate. Thank goodness.

"Are you sure you don't need me to come with you today?" Logan asked as he sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar with a plethora of newspapers under his arm and two cups of coffee in his hands.

"As much as I would love for you to come with me to pick out china patterns and floral arrangements, I know how busy you are and how thin you've been stretching yourself lately so I think I can handle making these decisions that neither of us really care about with the girls today." I say wrapping my arms around him from behind giving him a kiss on the cheek and taking the other cup of coffee before sitting down beside him, "but I do miss you and I wish I could just hang out with you for a day where there wasn't any wedding planning involved…which is not to say I don't enjoy planning the day where I will finally become your wife, but sometimes I feel like this wedding is taken over our lives and really all I want to do is just marry you."

"I miss you too." he says smiling, "but you know my previous offer still stands Ace. I'm more than happy to fire up the jet and head to Vegas and get married or we could keep it simple and I can call Bloomberg to marry us right now."

I laugh because this isn't the first time that Logan has mentioned this. I know he is joking but I'm sure if I said yes, he would have it done right away and the more into the wedding planning we get the more his offer is looking better and better. I mean did I really need to know all the different type of paper our wedding invitations could be printed on and what the names of the best calligraphists in the world were.

"That offer is sounding better and better Huntzberger." I say taking a large sip of my coffee. "After today, I may just take you up on it."

He smiles before pulling me into his lap, "what do you say to you and I getting out of dodge this weekend and just disappearing?"

"Mmmm me and you alone…I like the sound of that." I say and Logan pulls me in for a sweet kiss. I wrap my arms around him and I feel his hands tangle themselves in my hair and I do the same running my hands through his blond locks pulling him closer. We finally pull away after a moment, and I lay my head in the crook of his neck, "and uh where would you like to disappear to?"

"We could always go to the Vineyard or the Hamptons if you like but I was thinking more along the lines of a small bed and breakfast somewhere upstate where no one knows who we are or I could find some little beach house somewhere where no one knows who we are."

"I think I see where you're going with this." I say smiling before pressing my lips to his again.

"Well I didn't say disappear for nothing." he says and suddenly I'm lost in him until we're interrupted by his cell ringing.

"And so it begins." I say pouting before getting off his lap, but he puts his arms around my waist before I can get too far. "this weekend is just you and me ok. No cell phones, no distractions, just you and me."

"Sounds perfect….and just to make sure it's perfect and your office can't find you I'd better make sure I make all of the arrangements." I say and like clockwork his cell starts ringing again. "You'd better get that because you know they won't stop calling."

"Ugh I know." he says pouting. "Huntzberger."

* * *

><p>After a full day looking at flower arrangements and what not, I am exhausted. I don't know how many times I had to keep reminding my grandmother and Shira that we just wanted our wedding to be simple, understated and elegant, not over the top. Apparently their ideas of simple and mine were different. At one point I was ready to grab a dictionary and show them the meaning of simple because they weren't getting it. When I told my mother this, she said it would be more fun to just throw the dictionary at them and then tell them to look it up themselves. It wasn't a bad thought but unfortunately my conscience wont out in the end and I couldn't do it.<p>

The only saving part of the day was that with the help of my assistant Grace I was able to reserve a little beach cottage for Logan and I for the weekend in North Carolina. It was perfect and just the thought of a relaxing weekend of just Logan and I away from everything sounded perfect.

"Ace." I hear Logan call out from downstairs.

"In here." I yell out and look at the clock. 6 pm…this is early for him.

"Hey Ace." Logan says as he enters our bedroom, pulling his tie off before standing in front of me, kissing me hello. "How did the wedding planning go?"

"Ugh simply awful. My grandmother and your mother hated every decision I made. I had to keep reminding them that this was our wedding and they had to live with it." I said smiling.

"I bet they didn't go down without a fight."

"Of course not, Emily Gilmore and Shira Huntzberger do not like to be told that they are wrong although most of their choices were completely different than the others, but that didn't matter because my simple choices were just ghastly to them. I'm actually not sure what everything is going to end up looking like together because I think in the end I just started picking things because neither of them liked it, and bonus points if my mom loved it." I say smiling.

"Sounds like we're going to have an eclectic wedding." he says. "Lyn told me today that you wanted to clear my late Friday afternoon schedule because you wanted to whisk me away on a secret romantic getaway."

"Oh yeah is that ok. I figured I should plan it that way your office won't know where to find you. Pretty sneaky huh?" I say looking up at him but he doesn't look as excited about it as I am or as he did this morning actually his face looks slightly grim. "Logan is something wrong?"

"I'm not entirely sure I can get away this weekend like we wanted to." he says frowning. "I know I'm the one who suggested this weekend but some things came up at work today that I feel like I'm going to have to deal with over the weekend."

"Ok we can always reschedule for another time." I say feeling disappointed, "Is there something wrong at HPG?"

"Uh I'm not sure yet, but the lawyers want to meet to talk about a few things." he replied frowning.

"Oh. Lawyers that sounds serious. What's going on Logan?" I ask cupping his face.

"Eh I'm really not sure but I'm sure it's nothing. They're lawyers they tend to worry about everything and it usually turns out being nothing." he says before wrapping his arms around and capturing my lips with his. "I promise I'll make this weekend up to you."

"Ok stop trying to distract me with your kisses. I can see it on your face something is wrong so you might as well as tell me." I say looking at him pointedly and he sighs and runs his hand through his hair before sitting on the bed.

"A couple of weeks ago a lawsuit was filed by a former owner of a paper HPG purchased claiming he got a bad deal because the deal was made possibly at a time when my father wasn't entirely lucid. At first we thought it was nothing and that we could easily throw it out but then another former owner filed a similar suit as well as a few employees that were fired by my father. Today I learned five more suits were filed for wrongful termination."

"Oh my God." I exclaim understanding why Logan looked stressed. "So they've all filed lawsuits because of Mitchum's Alzheimer's?"

"It looks like it."

"How bad is it?" I say after studying his face for moment and seeing the stress of the situation written all over his face.

"It was one thing when it was just one lawsuit, but now that others have come out it could potentially set precedence for all of the others. The fact is my father was already diagnosed with Alzheimer's when all of these incidents occurred and while they probably can't prove that my father was under the affects at the Alzheimer's at the time, it's also hard to prove that he wasn't." he says squeezing my had, "the fact that we didn't force anyone to sell their newspapers to us works in our favor. Every paper we've purchased was because the owner wanted to sell."

"But the wrongful terminations are another thing."

"Yeah, there are even some rumblings of a few former HPG employees bringing a suit."

"Logan why haven't you told me any of this before now, obviously it's been going on for some time." I say putting my head on his shoulder.

"I don't know, it wasn't really an issue before. After the first suit came, we all just sort of dismissed it, but then another one came and another. It just hasn't been anything you needed to worry about." he says shrugging.

"Logan I don't expect to understand everything that is going on at HPG but if something is bothering you I would hope you would tell me." I say, "We're a team and maybe there is nothing I can do, but I'm here to support you."

"I know. I just know how stressed you've been at work and I've left planning the wedding all to you when I said I would help. I just didn't want to bother you with this."

"I just want you to know you can come to me with anything ok?"

"Ok." he says before kissing my forehead.

"So does Mitchum know?" I ask.

"No, not yet, but I'm going to have to tell him soon." he says wincing, "Dad is going to flip his lid. Maybe I'll get lucky and when I tell him he'll be in one of his non-lucid states."

"Logan that's horrible!" I say hitting his arm and he laughs.

"I'm kidding."

His phone beeps and he pulls it out of pocket and looks at it quickly. His mouths forms and O and he curses under his breath.

"What is it? What's wrong Logan?"

"The lawyers just sent me the names of the people filing the wrongful termination suits." he says looking at me. "One of them is your old boss from the Chicago Post Daily, Martin Lewis."

"Oh crap."

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><p>AN: Do you remember what happened with Martin Lewis is Facebook Friends? He's back in the mix..sort of. Please review.

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